BANGLADESH: 1,102 ON DEATH ROW AFTER BDR SENTENCES

November 6, 2013: The number of convicts on death row in Bangladesh rose to 1,102 after a court on Tuesday (November 5) sentenced 152 members of the former Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) to capital punishment in connection with the Pilkhana carnage.
Zahir Uddin Babar, assistant inspector general of the prisons, told the Dhaka Tribune that apart from the 152 BDR members, the number of detained convicts on death row totals 950.
“As we are yet to receive the court orders, the official number of the death row convicts will be 950 until November 5. After the court orders come, the number will rise to 1,102 officially,” he said.
At present around 70,000 prisoners are housed in 68 jails in Bangladesh and of them around 19,000 are convicts and the rest are under trial and detainees.
“Among the 19,000 convicts, around 7,000 are serving life,” said a jail official. (Sources: dhakatribune.com, 06/11/2013)